1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of coffee makers and is particularly directed toward coffee mixers for use with freeze-dried or instant coffees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Coffee urns have long been utilized for making and dispensing drip coffee for large numbers of users and in many commercial environments. In commonly known "drip-type" urns, coffee grounds are placed in a retaining basket positioned above the coffee collecting and dispensing means, and hot water is dispensed from a spray head located above the basket, the hot water dripping down through the coffee grounds from which it extracts flavor ingredients to become brewed coffee which is filtered as it leaves the basket and is then stored for use. The brewed coffee is maintained at a high temperature during storage and dispensing thereof.
In utilizing instant or freeze-dried coffee mixes it is not necessary to cause the hot water to flow down through a granular body of coffee, nor is it required to filter the brewed coffee. Indeed, the popularlity of instant or freeze-dried coffee rests upon its simplicity of preparation in that one only needs to add hot water to the coffee and mix the coffee therein.
Heretofore, the prime utilization of instant and freeze-dried coffees was limited to the making of small quantities of such coffee, as for example a single cup at a time as an individual required. Instant coffee has not been utilized in large commercial dispensers, and prior art drip-type coffee urns are not designed to operate on instant coffees. In particular, if an attempt were made to utilize a conventional drip-type coffee urn to make instant or freeze-dried coffee, the feeding of hot water from the conventional spray head apparatus located above the urn to the top of the urn would not provide the necessary mixing of the instant or freeze-dried coffee, and bulky and undesirably complicated mechanical mixers would have to be employed. The design of an instant coffee urn for commercial use has been further hampered by a general reluctance of consumers to order instant coffee as compared with drip coffee. Instant coffees are generally considered less "desirable" than true drip-type coffees and thus, despite the relative ease of making instant coffees, there has been a psychological customer block against them.